ALPINE OROGENY

mountain-building event that affected a broad segment of southern Europe and the Mediterranean region during the middle Tertiary Period (the Tertiary began 66.4 million years ago and ended 1.6 million years ago). The Alpine orogeny produced intense metamorphism of preexisting rocks, crumpling of rock strata, and uplift accompanied by both normal and thrust faulting. It was responsible for the elevation of the present Alps, from which the name derives, and for the uplifting of plateaus in the Balkan Peninsula and in Corsica and Sardinia. Volcanic activity in England, France, Iceland, and parts of Italy also occurred during the Alpine orogeny.